Happy 20th Launch Anniversary
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SOHO was launched on 2 December 1995, for what was originally
planned as a two-year mission. Twenty years later, it's still going strong.
Picture credit: Alex Lutkus |
Twenty years of operation without a single service or tune-up is no piece of cake for a spacecraft. As anyone who has operated scientific instruments in a lab will know, it's amazing how many things can go wrong, requiring some form of intervention or repair. But that has not been an option for SOHO and its instruments - if it breaks, it's broken, and all you can do is adjust to a new reality. But miraculously, we're doing very well even after all these years.
So, spirits are high at the SOHO operations center at Goddard Space Flight Center and in the instrument teams around the world as SOHO is embarking on its third decade of operations.
Anniversary Material
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Poster Hi-res TIF ( 11M), |
Poster Hi-res TIF (123M), |
ESA Brochure On-line viewer, | |
Related links
- ESA Release: SOHO Celebrates 20 Years of Discoveries
- NASA Release: SOHO Celebrates 20 Years of Space-based Science
- NASA News: Special Edition: 20 Years of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
- NASA YouTube Video: Highlights from SOHO's 20 Years in Space
- NASA YouTube Video: SOHO: Beauty Pass
- NASA History: A Look Back at NASA Solar Missions
- NASA Image of the Day: Celebrating 20 Years of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
- ESA YouTube Video: ESTEC Lunchtime Lecture: 20 Years of SOHO
- NASA Release: SOHO Celebrates 20 Years of Space-based Science
